to judge by the accounts we have of his person, probably not a very 

 active one on parade, and he was never tried any where else. He informs 

 us himself, however, that his training as a militiaman contributed 

 largely towards enabling him to write *' The Decline and Fall of the 

 " Roman Empire." 



With such horses as I have now described, the style of horsemanship 

 and the kind of exercises in vogue towards the end of the seventeenth 

 century, may be judged by a passage from the " Diary of Evelyn," 

 dated the 13th of December, 1685. "I went," says he, "with Lord 

 " Cornwallis to see the young gallants do their exercise, M. Faubert 

 " having newly railed in a menage, and fitted it for the Academy. There 

 "were the Dukes of Norfolk and Northumberland, Lord Newburgh, 

 "and a nephew of Duras, Earl of Feversham. The exercises were, 1st. 

 " Running at the ring. 2nd. Flinging a javeline at a Moor's head. 

 " 3rd. Discharging a pistol at a mark. Lastly. Taking up a gauntlet 

 " with the point of a sword; — all these performed in full speed. The 

 " Duke of Northumberland hardly missed of succeeding in every one, — 

 "a dozen times, as I think. The Duke of Norfolk did exceeding 

 " bravely. Lord Newburgh and Duras seemed nothing so dexterous. 

 "There I saw the difference of what the French call belle homme a 

 " cheval and bon homme a cheval, the Duke of Norfolk being the first, 

 *' that is a fine person on a horse, the Duke of Northumberland 

 "being both in perfection, namely, a graceful person and excellent 

 " rider. But the Duke of Norfolk told me he had not been at this 

 " exercise for these twelve years before. There were in the field 

 " the Prince of Denmark, and the Lord Lansdowne, son of the Earl 

 " of Bath, who had been made a count of the Empire last summer 

 "for his service before Vienna." 



The Arabs occupied Spain for seven centuries, and the African 

 shore of the Mediterranean they have possessed for twelve, and to the 

 intermixture of the blood of their horses with that of the native races 

 has been derived the jennet and the barb. A good native horse, 

 however, probably existed in both countries, and indeed with respect 

 to Barbary, it may be considered certain when we know that the 

 Numidian horse formed the best cavalry of Hannibal, and contributed 

 largely to his victories over the Romans. The Persian horse is said 

 to have some Arab blood, but it cannot be large, for the modern horse 

 does not materially differ from that represented with great spirit and 

 seeming truth in a celebrated mosaic pavement of Pompeii, which is, 

 at least, by seven centuries older than the conquest of Persia by the 



